It's a small world....

So what's going on in the world today? Or should that be, who was it that found the world yesterday? A Chinese lawyer has what he describes as 'proof' that Chinese explorer named Zheng He 'discovered' the Americas more than 80 years previously to Columbus, albeit travelling across the Pacific rather than the Atlantic.

Lets ignore the fact that the word 'discovered' completely dismisses several indigenous races who pretty much knew of the continents existence a long time before. In fact, lets even ignore that said indigenous peoples bear some resemblences to near neighbours in Eastern Asia anyway (after all, at their northern points the two continents are not that far apart, and cross-pollenisation is not that remote a possibility). Lets instead look at the 'facts' as presented.

The 'proof' is a map (shown above) which shows the Americas to the right hand side with Europe and Africa at the left and Asia in the middle. As with post-Columbus maps it assumes a spherical world, but rather than the Euro-centric models we are used to this is more... well, China-centric. Understandably. The original of this map is said to have been drawn in 1418... and herein lies the problem. The 'proof' is not the original map.

The map in question is an 18th century copy, which unsurprisingly has caused many to doubt the claim that Zheng He set foot on American soil before old Chris. It's too long winded to go into in detail but suffice to say both sides can produce oodles of evidence to support their claim (if you really want to know, click here). And of course the waters are truly muddied by decades old claims that the Vikings were there a few centuries earlier.

So allow me to sort it out once and for all. The first non-natives to visit the New World were a pair of Gauls named Asterix and Obelix. I know my history, I've read the bloody book! And if anyone else out there likes comic-strips please allow me to draw (pardon the pun) your attention to the All-New and Exciting Adventures in Blog World, starring many of the fuckers that are listed down the right. It's called Blunt Cogs, and if you don't get that then you're already screwed......

Cheers m'dears!